So Abraham took Ishmael his son, all who were born in his house and all who were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very same day, as God had said to him. (Gen 17,23)

Abraham was becoming a man of faith. It is more easily seen in obedience than in words - and as much as Abraham wavered and could not help but smile during his discussion with God at the thought that things might happen as God told him, in the end he obeyed God immediately. We can say he obeyed again - he had done the same after the visitation thirteen years ago. Only then he and Sarah were still physically able to conceive a child; now they are no more. Therefore, he had to show more faith now than then, faith in the life-giving power of God overcoming death, faith in the resurrection of the body.

This visitation of God now turned the whole family and farm upside down. Both Abraham and Sarah, together with all their servants and slaves, had grown accustomed to the fact that little Ishmael would be the heir and would take over Abraham's role when he grew up. And now another son is said to be born in his place, even though the parents are clearly past their physical prime. Has their master gone mad to believe this? They say that from now on (consider, he is ninety-nine!) he has a new name and should be called by it. And if only that. Finally he came up with the idea of getting circumcised immediately, but as God told him, he wants the same for them... And he's absolutely insistent about it.

The guys lamented silently at first, and then gathered their resolve wherever they could. They, unlike Abraham, had not met God and therefore did not have his motivation. Nevertheless, they could not deny that at the time God spoke to him, a strange atmosphere, full of awe such as they had never experienced before, engulfed the camp.

They could not resist their master long and obeyed him. For the next few days the camp was quiet, no work was done, and occasionally a painful groan came from this or that tent. It dawned on Abraham that he was now actually putting God's name publicly at stake by his faith. If Sarah did not become pregnant, the pain his men had to endure would be but a needless sacrifice to the folly of an old man on the way to his spiritual self-determination.